Local foursome wins Rotary golf tournament

5/5/2010 - As late as Thursday, skeptics were hardly convinced the eight inches of snow that blanketed the Plumas Pines Golf Course in Blairsden Tuesday and Wednesday would melt in time for the Quincy Rotary Club Dyrr Memorial Golf Tournament Saturday, May 1. But by Saturday, with some help from Mother Nature, the maintenance crew at the golf course did an unbelievable job getting the fairways and greens ready for the 96 golfers who competed for lots of prizes and titles in at the ninth annual event.

Capturing first place honors in the scramble-play format with an impressive 12-under par 60 were local residents Dave Ludington, Steve Risley, Zack Russell and Mason Werner. They each received a $50 gift certificate along with a round of golf for four, redeemable at Plumas Pines.

PGA professional and course manager Brandon Bowling used a tie-breaking formula for second place, as three teams posted a nine-under 61. This resulted in second place being awarded to Chico residents David Pollak, Mark Bowen and Erik Dyrr, and Ken Sorey from Oakland. Each earned a $50 gift certificate and one round of golf at Plumas Pines.

Although the handicapped challenged foursome of Fred Howe, Mike Howe, Jim Bequette and Barry Bailey enjoying the brilliant sunshine and relaxing round of golf, their score wasn’t up to par.

With a high posting on the day of 79, tournament co-chairs Steve King and Mike Taborski thought it only fitting to award each of them with a half-hour lesson from PGA instructor Brandon Bowling.

The tournament was named in honor Erik’s father, the late Clay Dyrr, who was an active member of the Quincy Rotary Club and founding chairman of the event, now the service club’s major fundraiser.

The Quincy Rotary tournament is known for the variety of additional contests and prizes offered during play, which has earned it a reputation of not only being competitive for the serious golfers, but fun for the higher handicappers as well.

Unfortunately, the three hole-in-one prizes: A fully-equipped 2010 Polaris ATV offered by DuPont Power Tools and Pizza Factory in Quincy and two $5,000 cash prizes, courtesy of Plumas Bank, Edward Jones Investments and Flanigan Leavitt Insurance, went unclaimed again this year.

The men and women's longest-drive winners, also sponsored by Pizza Factory, went to heavy-hitters Blake Kangas and Terri Brooks.

Beatty Construction sponsored the closest-to-the-hole contest, won for the second consecutive year by Steve Risley.

Mark Tieslau and Terri Brooks won the men’s and women’s closest-to-the-rope contest, sponsored each year by Dyrr’s brother, Gil, and his sister, Christine Smith.

Winners in those contests each received a $25 gift certificate redeemable at Plumas Pines.

Finally, four lucky golfers each won $100 cash in the Dyrr Memorial Cash Kicker, sponsored by John and Kathy Fehrman and Mike and Keri Taborski.

In a random drawing, the winners were Ed Turner from Cottonwood, Aaron Lohn from Portola, Haley White from Quincy and Jeff Korbett, Clay Dyrr’s nephew, from Temecula.

Knowing Dyrr always pulled for the underdog, his sister, Christine Smith, from Southern California, who along with other family members, has made it a point to play in the tournament each year, offers an additional $100 cash prize for the worst scoring team on the day.

This year the money went to the team of Fred Surber, Lloyd Crawford, Gene Mills and Dave Peters. They finished the day shooting a 14 over par 86.

Other corporate sponsors include Safeway Stores, Waste Management and Fuel Star 76 Food Mart. Proceeds from the tournament are used to fund the Quincy Rotary Club’s various community projects and local scholarships.